MoviePass’ Parent Company Wants to Split It Off Into Its Own Company

You surely know the name MoviePass, the company that until recently offered all-you-could-watch movies in theaters for a low monthly price (now it’s all you can watch from a rotating list of six movies a day). You might not know the company that owns MoviePass, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. They used to just be a tech company. They were data analytics guys. Then they acquired MoviePass. And then their stock went from $39 a share in late 2017 to about two cents a share today. It has been quite a year.

Helios and Matheson’s latest plan to turn around their fortunes in spite of MoviePass’ continued struggles is to spin that whole company off (along with Helios and Matheson’s other movie-related services and properties like the ticketing website Moviefone) into a new organization called MoviePass Entertainment Holdings Inc. This new creation will be, per the press release, a “vertically integrated film production, marketing and exhibition company.” Phew. Financial problems solved!

In a statement, Helios and Matheson CEO Ted Farnsworth said:

For many years, HMNY has been focused on data analytics, and in that capacity we own assets like Zone Technologies which provides a safety and navigation app for iOS and Android users and a global security concierge service. Since we acquired control of MoviePass in December 2017, HMNY largely has become synonymous with MoviePass in the public’s eye, leading us to believe that our shareholders and the market perception of HMNY might benefit from separating our movie-related assets from the rest of our company.

This news comes days after reports that the New York Attorney General’s office was investigating MoviePass and whether they potentially misled investors. If you’re curious, here are the six films you can watch today on MoviePass: Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, Colette, Free Solo, Monsters and Men, All About Nina, and On Her Shoulders. Enjoy.